Any suggestions on how to deal with this case?

[dpworks_media]

I have been an eBay seller for for around 4 years and not encountered a situation like this, so not sure what to do.

I gave a refund to a customer through Customer Support to settle a case. Customer support told me that the case had been closed in my favour. However, a few days later I check my status and see that both these cases had been closed in the buyers favour even when I resolved them.

I contacted CS when I noticed and they removed the defects as they could see they were erroneous.

unfortunately, this messed with my seller fees and is set to continue until dec 1st - 3 months in total. So far I’ve lost over $100+. 
i have since contacted eBay and after many emails back and forth they have fully admitted their mistake and acknowledged that it has cost me, but are refusing to do anything to rectify it or stop it in the future.

I am at a dead end with this. Have any other community members had a similar problem, if so, did you get it sorted?

 Thank you,

Daniel

[bonjourami]

If you refunded the cases, how could they have been closed in your favor? But you shouldnt have received defects for those, since you responded and refunded the buyers.

[dhbookds]

I can't see what you mean about lost $100..........do you mean you've been put on below standard and charged the extra %?  and that's what they refused to refund? 

And that came about because they said, erroneously, that you didn't settle the case yourself?  that ebay had to do it for you? 

[eleanor*rigby]

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I'd start by asking whether ebay.com--basically the U.S. site--is your home platform? If not, perhaps you'd want to post this on a discussion board for whichever ebay platform you registered with.

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@dpworks_media wrote:

I gave a refund to a customer through Customer Support to settle a case.

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Could you explain a bit more about the above statement? Did the buyer open a formal return/refund request through eBay? If so, what reason did s/he give for opening the request? Why did customer service get involved? And do you mean a customer service rep initiated the refund instead of you processing it yourself?

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@dpworks_media wrote:

Customer support told me that the case had been closed in my favour. However, a few days later I check my status and see that both these cases had been closed in the buyers favour even when I resolved them.

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On ebay.com, we consider a case being closed in a seller's favor if you don't have to refund. A seller would have to process a refund if the case was found in the buyer's favor.

Also, on ebay.com, if customer service is asked to "step in," even if it's by the seller, eBay considers that you have not adequately resolved the request, thereby resulting in the defect you're seeing. Perhaps that's true on your home board as well? 

If, as you posted, customer service removed the defects but you're being charged a "Below Standard" fee (I assume), I suppose continued conversations with customer service would be warranted.

Try contacting them on Facebook--you might get better results.

www.facebook.com/ebayfor business

Not sure if that's a different URL for Australian members . . .

Good luck.

[ten_o_nine]

Well, thankfully Dec 1st is around the corner, some times ebay customer service will promise you to fix an issue but they don't. can you imagine when they tell you they won't?

[dpworks_media]

Hi,

to answer some questions.

on eBay Australia, if a seller issues a refund before the customer asks eBay to step in, it is closed in the sellers favour.

The fees are a below standard penalty. The buyer returned 2 items so that was 2 defects.
The buyer claimed the items were damaged, after having them for 20 days, not making previous contact and opening the new & Sealed items. Because of this, I felt a partial refund was warranted. I proposed this to the buyer which they agreed to. However, I could not find where to issue a partial refund on my end so I contacted CS to do it on my behalf.

As the rep who issued the refund said that the case was closed in my favour and there were no additional fees, I’m not sure how it’s come to this.

[px_455 · Accepted solution]

In the USA if a seller calls Customer Support instead of simply issuing the refund AND the Customer Support ends up issuing the refund there is a good chance the CS in fact "escalated" the case and that means "case closed without seller resolution" (or how that is phrased) resulting in a defect.

I have been a victim of this myself, it happens quite seamlessly, seems a lot of CS will "escalate" a case without even realizing what this entails (or that it even happens) so long story short:
Always issue the refund from within the case before the deadline.

Do NOT call Customer Support for help with anything regarding an open case.

[downunder-61]

@dpworks_media 

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/call_us?type=ContactUs&initFrom=HOME&topicId=4000

Australian Contact ^^^^^

[dpworks_media]

Thank you, I’ll keep this in mind.

In this case the buyer agreed to a partial refund but I could not issue it on my end for some reason. Although, now that it turns out a full refund would of been A LOT cheaper than the fees, that may not be the best option.